A Curious Predicament
by MindlessAbnormity
Summary: What happens when the wayward, yet stubborn healer of the Awakened forces gets involved to try and deal with Palawa Joko's current macabre obsession with the Commander? (Consider this a fast forward time-skip thing from my main story of 'Tending the Dead'.)
1. The Fun Dungeon

**I don't own anything except for my OC.**

 **Author's Note** : HIYA. I've had this sitting around in my drafts for months, as I wanted to write about the events occurring right before the Long Live the Lich living story chapter. Consider this a super duper fast forward time thing from _Tending the Dead_.

Anyway, rendition of how things turn out when Julianna gets involved to deal with Joko's creepy obsession of wanting to kill the Pact Commander.

 **Update:** Made some heavy revisions and slight changes.

xxx

Julianna Fyre grasped the railing of the decrepit-looking undead ship as it came to a halt in the harbor, the woman swallowing back the nauseous-induced bile that was daring itself to dispose of her stomach contents. Her pale freckled face looked almost a ghastly shade of green, which nearly matched the shade of the gangrenous-like area that had been deeply affected by an particular Awakened ruler's influence. She sniffed the air and immediately regretted it, as her still-lurching stomach was hardly aided by the smell of miasma and decay that constantly lingered around in the vicinity.

Two of the Awakened army's high ranking marshals, Beastmarshal Oluwa Eranko and Troopmarshal Olori Ogun, stood waiting at the bottom of the plank that was being pulled over, the duo patiently awaiting the arrival of their awaited guest. An Awakened mummy shuffled around with the wooden piece, arranging it against the boat so its denizens could easily depart.

Ever since the Awakened forces arrival into Gandara the Moon Fortress, their leader; Palawa Joko, had decidedly holed himself away within his so called 'fun-dungeon' for days on end. Under most circumstances, his marshals would have passed it aside as some new bizarre fixation from their unpredictable ruler, but it had obviously turned into a disturbing bout of obsession that had now developed as something of dreaded concern.

Rather than be valuable assets to the battlefield as they usually were, the two marshals were now constantly burdened with the trivial task of capturing nearby Kournan villagers whenever ordered. And although the both of them were not pleased with their recent tasks, neither would ever dare question their benevolent King's requests.

Even if it seemed unfitting to their high-ranking position.

"Do you think this is going to work?" Ogun asked quietly with only a slight turn of his head once the wayward healer began the descent down the plank.

Eranko's dangerous looking claws slightly twitched at her sides, the more canid looking marshal looking straight ahead at the docked ship. "It had better."

Because they had both been tasked with bringing the captured prisoners to their appointed cages down in the crypts of the fortress, it reasoned to be that the two Marshals had both seen glimpses of the unnatural monstrosities from within the dungeon itself. And although they knew their leader well-enough through years of service and what he was grievously capable of, they both agreed in passing that it was something far closer to that of a living house of horrors than anything that would ever resemble the notion of 'fun'.

Each time they brought some poor soul to the clutches of their leader, neither ended up seeing any whereabouts of the egotistical lich. They had only heard snippets of dialogue on the off-chance they overheard him mumbling to himself in the next room over, which allowed them to learn that he was using some sort of illusion to make the Kournan prisoners appearance resemble to that of the Pact Commander.

To say that it was disturbing, would have been an understatement at this point.

Eranko had found herself becoming both frustrated and concerned with her leader's questionable actions. She had tried numerous times to bring him away from his manic work, but he always snapped explosively and ordered her away. And although her higher rank within the Awakened forces had allowed her a closer relationship to that of many other lesser undead, it still wasn't enough to pry him away from his endeavors. She had hoped she could try and evoke some sense of practicality back into his rotting head, but it seemed he was too far gone in his dwindling state of mind.

But the canid-like marshal knew of one last ace in the hole that could potentially break the great Palawa Joko from his disturbing spell.

"Ah, if it isn't our awaited guest, Julianna Fyre", Eranko said loudly with a nod of her head. Sharp turquoise-colored eyes watched the woman while she was taking incredibly cautious and wobbly steps down the ramp. "We've been expecting you. Your presence could not have come at a better time."

Since the tumultuous time with the Pact Commander and their loyal forces, the Awakened army's healer had been sent far away back into the more safer confines of the Bone Palace to continue out with her daily routines. It was there in the Desolation that she had been residing for the past few months while Joko worked on his diabolical plan to release the Scarab Plague upon the denizens of the living world. He had long-since claimed her expedition back to that location was because she was nothing more than a bother to him, and he wanted to prevent her from distracting him with his grand-encompassing plans.

And while some part of that had been partially true, it was also to keep her away from the crossfire of getting killed given her less than valuable track record.

After dealing with one Kournan prisoner too many and seeing her leader's downward spiral continuing to deteriorate, Eranko had decided that she had quite enough of those shenanigans. Promptly upon pronouncing something needed to be done, she sent a courier back into the sulfurous ridden wasteland asking for the healer to make haste to The Domain of Kourna at once. The message was kept brief, mentioning only that it was because their ruler needed help with a current medical-related problem he had been having. Julianna had accepted the proposal without much rebuttal on her end, as her bleeding heart had immediate concern for the lich she had seemingly grown attached to after her many years of service.

Said healer wobbled off the last step of the plank, struggling to keep herself upright from falling right back into the murky waters of the dock behind her. She gave a small wave of polite acknowledge to the two undead before she knelt over, her hands resting upon her knees as she struggled to get a second wind after her ordeal on the ship.

"Little one, you don't look like you are managing too well right now?" Ogun asked with a concerned tone, the incredibly tall undead's head turning to the side in confusion as he tried to discern what was wrong with the person.

"You know, it's kind of funny", Julianna began as she tucked a strand of blonde curly hair behind her ear. The waters on the boat ride here had been incredibly rough and choppy because of some unforeseeable storms, and the ride could be described as nothing less than unpleasant. "I've always had some sort of trouble when it came to sea-faring boat rides. Which of course, I think is pretty ironic given I worked on injured pirates back in Lion's Arch."

The two Awakened just looked to each other with mirrored looks of apprehension.

"My stomach would probably appreciate some peppermint tea right now...", she continued, braving herself to stand rightly back up again. Slowly but surely enough already, her legs were already feeling like they were returning back from their previous jelly-like state after the triumphant return back to solid land once more.

"Perhaps we can find some inside the fortress", the Beastmarshal offered, turning to return back to the massive bone constructed structure behind them. She beckoned forward with a clawed hand, Ogun already beginning to follow behind.

"Doylak spit...", Julianna muttered as she shook her head. Her legs wobbled forward as she dragged them along and began to move. "As long as there aren't any more dumb boat rides..."

xxx

And it was now that Ogun had found himself sitting across from a very pleased looking Julianna in the middle of a random galley the two had found within the fortress.

The healer cradled a warm cup of peppermint tea between her hands, savoring the smell of warm wisps of mint dancing upwards towards her nose with a content smile on her freckled face. It had taken quite a lot of searching to scrounge together the ingredients she had been looking for, but she was grateful they had been stocked. She had learned quite quickly through her search, that there were certainly many unmentionables stored away in a majority of the crates as well. More than once she had found herself questioning if she were in a gallery or a research laboratory.

But she also knew it should have come as expected, given that the Awakened no longer had the biological function anymore which required them to sate their hunger. Eating was not something their undead bodies needed, though it did not mean they were no longer allowed to indulge in such obligations if they so chose.

Ogun drummed his bony fingers across the table impatiently, still quite frustrated that the Eranko had unknowingly stuck him with this task when they passed through the gate into the fort. His cohort had cleverly sauntered off the second they stepped foot into the courtyard, muttering something along the lines of needing to go train the raptors for an upcoming raid. The Troopmarshal disagreed at first as he too could have been training soldiers or probably doing anything else that would have proven to have been a more efficient use of his time. Yet here he was practically playing host to the one person in all of Elona that somehow seemed to hold his ruler's interest more than anyone else.

"So sate my curiosity, why the great need for hunting down peppermint of all things?" he asked after a long silence between the two, raising a brow towards the woman. He still struggled to understand why such a person like this created such a fascination to an all-powerful lich.

"Oh, you didn't know?" she asked back, her dark eyes looking up meet a pair of yellow unimpressed ones staring back at her. "The smell actually helps with nausea. It's something to do with old age aroma therapy and all that."

"I wouldn't have known that...", Ogun simply replied back, sounding bitter because of the fact that there was actually a large hole where his stomach should have been. Had he wanted to indulge into such a random treat, he wouldn't have been able to anyway unless he wanted the contents to be leaking all over him.

"The letter Eranko sent through the courier was lacking a bit on the detail side of things. So what's the problem with the grumpy bag of bones?" Julianna asked, changing the conversation as she moved the cup back onto the table. "I thought it was a very strange thing to receive so suddenly out of the blue. Especially when considering he can heal wounds of his own by using his own necromantic healing magic."

"Whatever he's been up to has been very strange", the marshal replied, sounding relieved at the change of topic. "It's just that he's been away in that 'fun-dungeon' of his for days on end now, and to be honest, we're getting a little freaked out by it."

"Fun-Dungeon?" the woman echoed, her brows knitting together closely as a disturbed look crossed her features. She knew that word 'fun' and 'dungeon' coming from a terrible being like the infamous undead ruler would certainly not bode well for anyone.

"It was Eranko's suggestion that you might be able to snap him out of this bizarre fixation", the marshal continued, sitting up more straight in his seat now while clasping his hands together neatly.

Julianna grabbed the cup and sipped at her tea again, nodding to what she had been told. She wasn't quite sure what the marshals thought she was going to be able to do, but she figured she could at least make the attempt. Her stubbornness to ignore his blatant orders of staying at the Bone Palace had been evidence enough that perhaps she could make some sort of change.

From the depths below the fortress, a bellowing scream suddenly bounced off the walls as the sound traveled before ultimately dying out.

Ogun seemed hardly unfazed by it, and he instead watched the woman's expression turn to that of dread as her entire form froze up. Her hands tightly gripped the ceramic in her hands, the whites of her joints visibly appearing as she had a near death-grip on the cup.

"We better get a move on then", he suggested then, moving to stand up from the table. "Not much longer, and Joko will be sending someone to retrieve another body once that screaming stops."

The healer sat for a moment more, thinking about what trouble she was about to willingly get herself into. She took one last generous gulp of the peppermint tea before wondering if perhaps a tumultuous boat ride wasn't so bad of an alternative after all.

xxx

The Troopmarshal and Julianna made their way through the fortified area, weaving in and out through numerous hallways as they descended a series of twisting staircases that brought them closer and closer to their destination. Ogun walked in front just slightly, having nearly memorized the floor plan of the maze-like structure from all of his patrols and constant walking back and forth from needing to bring live prey to the dungeons. Eventually the two had made it to a large hallway deep within the lower levels of the foundation; two large doors presenting themselves at the very end of it.

Julianna pinched her nose and waved at the air in front of her face as they continued walking down the hall. "It smells like something died, then came back to life and died again down here", she mentioned aloud.

"You know, you're probably not too far off. But besides that, I thought you would have been used to the smell of death by now?", Ogun commented, looking down to the small mortal next to him as he arched a brow towards her. The hidden meaning behind his words had been all too clear, since the bizarre relationship the woman shared their king was well-known by most because of shared gossip and rumors.

"Well, yeah", she stammered as a bright red color crept up her neck to her face. "But... this is somehow worse than what I'm used to being around."

"The dungeon we're looking for is located fairly close to the sewer system. Which means it's pretty far and out of the way from everything else in the fortress", the towering undead said with a gravely tone, as he looked ahead at approaching doors unfortunately waiting for them at the end of the hallway.

Another scream suddenly erupted from within the room, the sound seeming to have been prematurely cut short halfway through as it was silenced.

"I could bet a copper coin that I'm really not going to like whatever is in there...", Julianna muttered while rubbing her upper arm nervously and fiddling with the scarab-decorated ring on her finger.

After a few more tepid steps across the stone's cracked flooring, the duo stopped just before the doors that would lead into the horrors that lay just beyond. Although confident with the plan not too long ago, Ogun was now hesitating with continuing any further as he thought back to the random disturbed mumbling he had previously heard from his unpredictable leader.

There was no telling what was going to happen.

And that was the worst part of all this.

The marshal took a deep breath, raising a closed fist to the heavy set pair of doors before hesitantly knocking on the wooden surface. The sound seemed to have echoed throughout the entire structure of the fortress and it sent a chill into his already frigid bones.

"What is it?" Palawa Joko loudly barked from within after hearing the knock, the question muffled from within the room but still causing weary to those awaiting outside. The cries from before had slightly died down, as though some unfortunate soul's prayers had been heard and their rescue had finally arrived. Though it was anything but.

"Pardon the sudden interruption my king, but I have an important guest here for you", Ogun continued, swallowing hard as he tried not to allow any shakiness to his voice. He was beginning to think this random plan of bringing the healer wasn't actually going to work. He was going to chew off his cohort's ear if he got through this well and mostly alive.

Julianna looked up to the towering undead general next to her, frowning with a show of concern when she could hear the obvious uncertainty in his voice.

"Did you now? But I truly don't care who they could possibly be, send them away and leave me be", Joko replied hastily back from behind the doors, the horrible sound of screaming picking up again from within the room.

The Awakened marshal wasn't about to argue with his ruler's clear demand this time around, and he turned to hastily retreat with no further argument on his part. But he should have expected the stubborn woman's headstrong attitude to shine through as she instead moved past him and pried the large doors wide open without any further warning. He watched, slightly mystified by her actions upon seeing her bravely stand there between the now opened space.

Palawa Joko felt his patience nearly snap upon hearing the the closed doors of his personal dungeon open up without notification, and he paused within his macabre task while his bony neck cracked up like a sharp whip of lightning. His anger was only halted with the slightest sliver surprise when he saw the familiar figure of his healer standing there looking into the room with obvious disgust written upon her face. His eyes widened with disbelief for only a fraction of a second, before they returned back to their former irritated-looking state.

His favorite source of entertainment's sudden presence here would foretell nothing but immediate problems for him. And likely for her as well.

"My dear Troopmarshal Ogun", Joko simply motioned over towards his undead general that was still standing some cautionary distance behind the woman. He looked like that of a frightened youth. Which even given his much taller height compared to the smaller person next to him, had made it all the more pathetic. "I thought you said that you had a brought me a valuable guest, not a pest."

The woman's verbal rebuttal was near instant, and she replied before Ogun even had a chance to get a word in. "Ironic that you would be the one calling me a pest, since all I currently see is a Skritt hiding down here in a dark, awful room."

The lich's eyes flicked back towards his marshal, muttering a straightforward order. "Out."

The high-ranking officer quickly followed the orders, decidedly leaving the ornery woman to battle it out with his incredibly frighting and unpredictable ruler. He watched in real time as the wayward healer had quite literally just dug herself a very real and possible grave from her quick words. Ogun turned to leave back down the hallway, secretly still hoping that this botched-together plan was going to work.

Julianna remained rooted to the spot though, only flinching just slightly when the sound of the doors closing had hit her back. She didn't dare yet make eye contact with the familiar lich on the other side of the room, even though she could feel his piercing gaze boring holes into the very fiber of her being. It was only after hearing the locking mechanisms of the door slide into place that she now realized she was stuck in the ghastly looking room with one of the most powerful beings within Elona, and she became all too aware of just how much trouble she had obviously gotten herself into.

Yet again.

"P-please, just... end this...", the prisoner laying out atop the table in front of Joko suddenly pleaded with a hoarse voice. The person struggled against their bindings, though it did no good against the leather straps pinning their limbs down.

The Scourge reacted near instantly, and he sent a pulsing swell of necromantic, dark magic through his hand. The quick incantation drained the prisoner's life force near instantly, as a now lifeless husk remained atop the table. During the short duration of the cast spell, the lich hadn't yet moved his displeased-looking eyes away from the person still awkwardly standing in front of the door, and he kept his focus rightly pinned on the now, only other living person in the dark and dreary space.

Upon hearing the woeful cry, Julianna had taken a precarious step forward the second she was made aware of what was about to happen after the desperate plea. Her own arm remained now frozen in the air after raising just slightly for a last second attempt to cast a protective healing shield on the poor person. But Joko had proved to have been the faster spell-caster, even though her bleeding heart had made a quick endeavor to try saving him. Her hand slowly lowered back down into her side and behind her, as her hand formed into a fist and her fingernails dug into her palm.

"It may not look like it, _little one_ , but I am a busy lich", Joko finally spat, gravely voice sounding nothing but irritated while deciding to properly address the new problem in the room. "Just what brings the likes of you here to the splendor of my 'fun-dungeon'? Especially since you're supposed to be busying yourself within the walls of the Bone Palace back in the Desolation; which most specifically, means not here."

The healer finally looked up to make eye-contact from across the room, a disappointed look of her own crossing her features. "A little undead bird told me that you've been holing yourself away down here", she said slowly. She wanted to keep names discreet for their own safety of course,but it was likely quite obvious who was responsible given who it was that had walked her here. There were few very within the Awakened forces that even had the permissions to come this close to the bowels of the fortress.

"Did you now?" Joko responded, raising a brow high into his headdress. He looked down to the dead corpse on the table in front of him, scowling at the body as he reached across it to grab a set of a grisly looking pliers. "Good for you then. Such pluck..."

"Imp gall... it's obvious this line of new work is... fairly concerning, that much I can pretty clearly see now", Julianna said, taking the time to look around at all the macabre instruments of horror laying about the room though she quickly regretted it. She shook her head to try and rid herself of the images staining her thoughts. "Even when it's coming from someone such as the likes of you."

The undead ruler hummed some random tune aloud, ignoring his healer altogether as he became entranced within his important work once again. He was debating about Awakening the still-warmed corpse he was going to continue working on. "I was hardly listening anymore, did you say something my dear?"

Joko said nothing more to his living company, even though he could feel the woman shoot a hateful glare from all the way across the room. He would even go so far as to guess that she had predictably stuck her tongue out towards him as well for his brash comment, but it would have gone unseen seeing as how he didn't currently care about being enthralled by one of his favorite sources of entertainment. He had been hoping the dissuasive comments would be enough to deter her away from his work, but he rolled his eyes when he could hear her footsteps crossing the threshold of the room. The still-annoyed looking lich looked back up with little amusement to see she had stopped just short across the examination table, though she kept herself a few cautious feet away.

"I would dare to say this is almost obsessive", she noted as she tried not to look at the corpse right in front of her. "Perhaps you could come upstairs to one of the galleries and have a quick cup of tea to get yourself-"

"No one, and I mean _no one_ , is to tell the likes of the Great Palawa Ignacious Joko what to do", he swiftly interrupted, narrowing his eyes towards the bothersome person. His voice was venomous as he continued. "Especially when coming from the likes of someone like you."

Julianna stood firm, though the words had been like a physical slap across her face as they stung terribly. She tried mirroring his own hateful glare without much sucess, but he quickly broke the eye contact and returned back to his work of beginning to peel apart the dead corpse on the table. He muttered something else incomprehensible as he looked around for a specific tool laying around somewhere nearby.

A puff of hot air escaped through the woman's nose, and she looked around at anything to focus her attention to. She mulled the words over again in her head, knowing full-well that it was his current obsession to eradicate the Pact Commander which had influenced the hatred in his spoken words. Although she knew there was little merit to what he had said, it hadn't cushioned the blow to his comment.

However, Julianna Fyre had known the great and powerful, Palawa Joko long enough now to detect something underneath those cruelly spoken words.

Frustration.

A specific kind of frustration in this case.

She decided a change of tactics was entirely necessary if she was to make any sort of progress.

"You know, the good doctor is incredibly curious about something that just crossed her mind...", Julianna began instead. She circled around the table and moved to stand just right next to him, though her height was dwarfed by his own as she barely came up to his torso. "Do you have any harems this far out in Kourna?"

"What are you getting at woman?" Joko hissed through clenched teeth, the ornaments on his clothing creating a choir of sound as his head whipped around to glare down at the far-too confident pest just next to him. He was completely taken aback by this new show of certainty, as she was usually far more reserved when it came to these types of matters.

"We both know you've been holing yourself away in this fortress with these plans against the Pact Commander for quite some time now", she continued, turning her head to the side while an all-knowing smirk stretched across her freckled face. "I would imagine you've been quite busy because of that, and as such, has meant you haven't had much free-time to divulge in certain activities."

It was now Joko's turn to remain silent.

"I mean, considering it was you that made the arrangements to keep a certain person back at the Bone Palace", she continued while leaning against the table, the smile remaining on her face as she knew she had caught him against a rock and a hard place. She figured she had finally gotten the upper hand against the high-libido fueled lich, and she was assured she was now holding the winning hand of this little game.

There was a long, uncomfortable pause between the two before the undead ruler finally spoke up.

"Do you remember the beginnings of our fateful encounters with one another?" Joko began slowly, seeming to go completely left field this new train of conversation as he stared ahead at some crude instrument hanging on the farthest wall. "The fear you showed towards me back then was like an insatiable hunger that I found myself craving for whenever the need arose."

Julianna's brows knit together closely with immediate confusion, her once-sly face quickly turning to apprehension. This wasn't what she had been expecting from her harmless jab at trying to break him from his obsessive bout. She said nothing more, allowing for the companion next to her to continue.

"Of course, as time went on and we situated within each other's company more, that fear slowly began to ebb away", he continued, his eyes still set straight ahead. "The fear you showed and your incredibly, stupid stubbornness against me was a dangerous combination I could not easily derive myself away from."

"Doylak spit...where are you going with all of this?" she quietly asked, sensing a dangerous aura coming from the powerful necromancer next to her. His demeanor had changed, and although not unfriendly before, it had turned into something that was causing her brain to sound alarms in her head. That all-too familiar sense of fear came creeping up from the lowest depths of her person.

Joko turned and swiftly reached out to tightly grab hold of the woman's small bandaged wrist, his tar-stained claws standing out against the canvas of her pale skin. A crude smile formed on his face when he felt her immediately tried to pull away, and the over-confident expression she had been wearing was quickly crumbling away and being replaced by something far more delectable to his tastes instead.

Julianna looked down to the tightening pointed fingers on her wrist, her eyes widening in fright when she could see a swell of dark mist begin crawling up her arm. She could nearly feel the magic's energy all the way down to her bone, and it felt as though the marrow was being chilled to a forever frozen state of being. The cold temperate continued creeping upwards along with the swirling dark cloud as it went further up her limb.

"Okay grumpy bag of bones, I get it... this isn't funny anymore", she said, still unsuccessfully trying to wring her hand out his grip as she could feel herself loosing function within the digits of her fingers now.

The cruel-being keeping a tightened grip had kept an impassive look upon his weathered features, though he was watching with great amusement to see his companion's entire demeanor had now shifted entirely back into one that was far more suitable for his likeness.

"Joko, stop", she tried again, her voice wavering as she was watching the black mist continuing with its venture. It was now past her elbow's joint and was still steadily climbing up towards her shoulder. "Are you actually doing this right now?"

"I'm only looking for a very special word from the tart", he nearly sang in sickeningly sweet tone, the corners of eyes crinkling with sheer delight.

The healer could feel her entire arm almost lose its feeling as this point, as the muscle and bone could be felt like a dead weight attached to her shoulder blade. Not much farther and the deathly magic would be seeping directly into the fragile capillaries of her heart, which would likely end her life force right then and there. She was almost unaware that her entire body was practically shaking from fear right now, and she uselessly tried using her other usable hand to claw into his leathery flesh in an poor attempt to pry him off.

Her current, frazzled brain was trying to comprehend what trivial word he could have possibly been looking for. Dark eyes watched as the magic was now at her shoulder joint, which meant there was very little time left before it reached her rib cage. The closeness to her heart and lack of time she had left suddenly created a short but beneficial window of clarity coming through, as she finally realized verbal cue the demented being been looking for.

"Please!" she announced with haste, looking up to meet his grinning face. She nearly repeated the answer again when he didn't respond to her request right away, but he finally relinquished the deadly spell and released the vice-like grip he had on her arm.

Joko just watched with great satisfaction as she pulled her arm back into her chest, cradling the limb in her hold as she squeezed parts of it to ensure she still had all of the feeling back within it. He moved forward while she was distracted, wrapping his arms around the still-shaking woman as he pulled her into a tight embrace.

"Oh dear, the poor little tart has succumbed to such... unpleasantries during her stay within my 'fun-dungeon'", he cooed with a sickeningly-sweet tone, a ring covered hand moving to pet the top of her head while his other arm stayed wrapped around her back. He couldn't hold back a selfish grin when he could feel her body still slightly trembling within his grasp.

The undead ruler simply believed that the foolish woman had tried to start some game that she thought she could win against him, though she had quickly been shot back down and put back into her rightful place again. Although admittedly for him, it had been quite the enjoyable game to play since he now realized just how much he had truly missed the company of the stubborn mortal. Nearly scaring the person half to death because of it had only been a slight drawback that could easily be put back in working order again.

"Shall we indulge in some tea, like you suggested earlier?" he asked, breaking the silence and pausing with his petting as he awaited an answer. "I do suppose it would be quite amiable to escape the dreadful business of this room."

Julianna swallowed a lump that had been building in the back of her throat, as she was trying to get herself calmed back down after realizing just how close and easily she had come to death yet again. She slowly nodded at the suggestion, moving her own arms to wrap around his lower torso as she yearned for any sort of comfort in the moment, even if it was coming from the very-same person to have put her in this current conundrum.

"Excellent, let us be off then", Joko said with cheerful finality. He abandoned his previous macabre work and made headway for the large double doors, his favorite healer nearly stuck to him like glue as they left the room.


	2. Interrogation

**Author's Note:** This was just my excuse to write Canach.

Anyway, this takes place pretty soon after our dear Commander deals with Joko.

 **I don't own anything except for my OC.**

 **xxx**

 _"Commander, we found someone you may want to speak with",_ Sayida the Sly's smooth voice said over a tech-savvy Asuran communication device. _"Said she was a healer to Jokoʼs rotting, cadaver-like army. Found her near the docks of the fortress just as my naval support arriving for backup."_

"A healer?" The Commander; prominent hero of all things important echoed back. Their grip on the piece of equipment in their palm tightened considerably to the point where the tech began to static loudly in protest from the applied force.

Along with the splinter group named Dragon's Watch which consisted of a tight-knit merry band of heroes, the group was just making their well-deserved return back across the bone decorated bridge. Gandara, the Moon Fortress of which they just left stood imposingly behind their fatigued silhouettes as they made headway to the main encampment. The group of remained mostly silent throughout the trip back, as everyone was still absorbing the shocking events that they had previously just endured and witnessed.

The last thing they wanted right now was another potential problem on their back again so soon. They had just dealt with bringing down the tyrannical lich in his house of horrors, though it was concluded mostly with the help of their adolescent dragon-friend, Aurene.

A loud sigh escaped the battle-worn hero's lips, realizing that trouble was not yet done chasing them. Just their luck that they weren't going to escape to a short-lived breath of fresh air so soon yet.

"Just bring her back to the main encampment for questioning then", the Commander continued while reaching up to pinch the bridge of their browse. "But be careful though, because we don't know what we're dealing with yet."

There was nothing but static-like laughter from the Corsair on the other line before it prematurely cut off.

The hero was left to pause and stand there in the middle of the bridge with an utterly confused look on their face, now looking more unsure than ever.

xxx

Julianna Fyre had been brought in for immediate questioning the second that Captain Sayida and her gang of scallywags had spotted her loitering around the docks. She put up little to no fight whatsoever, and willingly tagged along to be brought back to the fortified Allied Encampment in the heart of Kourna. The freckled face woman looked slightly worse for wear after being roughly handled around by the less-than pleasant Corsairs, but she otherwise appeared mostly unharmed. A few stray platinum curls stuck out at odd ends, giving her a rather unkempt appearance compared to what she was accustomed to.

Since arriving her thoughts had looked to be entirely and completely elsewhere, and she had nervously been fidgeting nonstop with the ring on her finger. Currently she was seated at some worn and rotted looking desk, hardly paying attention to the matters around her.

The Commander admittedly was quite taken aback by the fluffy-haired person that was brought into the temporary staging room for an brief interrogation. When they had heard on the communication device that there was a healer to the Awakened army, they hadn't been expecting someone that didn't look anything like a corpse that had been recently dug out of a grave and brought back to life. As did most of the Awakened they had run into thus far in their journey through Elona.

"I was expecting someone... a lot more mummy-like, you know?", Braham Eirsson said aloud, breaking the stunned silence from the group that stood in the room. The large Norn yelped when his Charr friend, Rox, suddenly elbowed him in his side as a physical cue for him to keep silent about what everyone else was already thinking.

It didn't take a Skritt to realize that the woman was an obvious an anomaly when dealing with a group that was associated with Palawa Joko. It was even more concerning when they were given new information from Shadows Agent Kito upon arriving back to the camp with their quarry. The shadowy man had eyes and ears everywhere, and was quick to divulge intriguing evidence upon learning who exactly had been captured. While a good percentage of information was kept secret within the Order of Shadows for discrete reasons, he had been quick to dispel that this person of interest had some kind of close connection to the recently fallen lich.

It was unanimously decided after Kito's new information that questions from the woman needed to be answered. But because of Majory and Kasmeerʼs were currently still occupied with tracking down Kralkatorrik up in the mountains, meant that it was determined their local bombardier was going to be the next best bet for an interrogator.

"Weʼre asking you to keep a close eye on her Canach", the Commander said to the Sylvari standing near the desk with slight uncertainty sounding in their bravado. The rest of the occupants which mostly included Dragon's Watch, slowly began filing out of the room one at a time. "While I donʼt think she actually presents any type of threat after what Kito was thankfully able to tell us, we still shouldn't trust her."

The dusty-skinned Sylvari's purple eyes glinted with mischief upon hearing the order from his commanding officer. "Youʼre really going to completely entrust her upon me? I have to say I am quite flattered Commander", he jovially said, a grin on his pointed features. He tapped a single finger to his spiky chin. "Iʼll make sure to take my newly appointed post with extreme caution."

"Look, I really donʼt want to hear it right now. I had gotten more than enough jeers to last a lifetime and more back when we were fighting Joko. Just know you have an important job to do right now", the Commander said with a resigned-sounding sigh before promptly moving to leave the room. They paused at the doorway, watching the two remaining inside for a second more before muttering something under their breath and shaking their head. The door closing behind them rattled the adobe walls, the settled dust from above coming down in brief cascades.

The plant-like being turned towards his target after his comrade in arms left, his smile only widening further when he saw the clearly annoyed look the woman had been sporting on her own freckled face. He seated himself down at the creaky wooden table in the middle of the room across from her whether she had any say or not. After deeming she hadn't been remotely dangerous, it was decided easily enough that there was no need for shackles or immobilization of any kind. Even if the healer had somehow escaped the room, she wouldn't be able to get very far considering the amount of forces that await outside.

"What?" Canach asked innocently enough, shrugging his shoulders after seeing her irritated looking face. He leaned back in his chair, throwing all means of manners out the window as he put his heavy boots up on the table. "The Commander isn't wrong though. You spent a disturbing amount of time with that deplorable lich, would you really expect us to not trust you?"

Julianna let out an exhale of hot air through her nose, now turning to look away from the snarky sounding person seated across from her. She moved her attention to the melted candlestick rooted to the middle of a dish on the table.

The explosiveʼs expert shrugged and merely continued. "Then you see our point, hardly any room for further argument."

The healer stubbornly said nothing still, as her focus was still entirely lost elsewhere in that moment. Her eyes watched the burning wick, which was just inches away from the heavy mud caked boots propped right up next to it. Her mouth formed a tight and nearly invisible line as she watched the candlelight flick and dance around.

A heavy silence passed between the two.

"I do have to ask given my curious nature, if you donʼt mind me indulging about your personal life", Canach began again as he broke the stillness between them. He removed his boots from the table top and sat up more straightforward as though he was intently invested in the new conversation he was going with. The Sylvari propped up an armored elbow on the table and watched his company more attentively.

"Go on...", Julianna said lamely, snapped from her brooding thoughts by the random question. Her dark eyes focused back on the pair of purple ones watching her more closely now.

"Rumors go around saying that you and that awful bedazzled corpse were relatively close", he began, choosing his next words quite carefully. "Which is hard for me to believe because I assumed from all the grand, obliviously overcompensating statues placed around, that the only person he liked was himself. But then you come around into the story at some unknown point and completely threw that speculation to the ground."

"Very funny... but I think... that I just had more trust with him than most others did", Julianna hesitantly replied, eyes returning back to the flame again. Her answer had been simple, but it obviously still left a lot of speculation. She was well aware this was still an interrogation of some parts, and she wasn't about to entirely spill her life story to some complete stranger she hardly knew. "Though I will say trust wasn't something earned with ease and without consequence."

"I wonʼt pry further into those nitty-gritty details then", Canach continued with a hum in his throat. "But I do want to know about other interesting nitty-gritty details instead. How far into an intimate relationship did you go with that disgusting, rotting bag of decaying flesh?"

Juliannaʼs fluffy head of curls bounced back up with the sudden movement when her neck cracked up at a shocking speed. Her eyes were wide, as she hadn't been expecting the sudden personal jab into her so-called romantic life. Although she had grown used to the different names being used for the undead ruler, the prodding question about her personal life had caught her completely off guard in the moment.

"W-what?", she stammered, her hands clasping tightly together.

The Sylvari slapped the table with a hand and merely laughed, watching the deep red color nearly cover the entirety of the womanʼs face. There was no way she could have hidden the answer when her physical features betrayed her so evidently.

"I can only assume from the color on your face that my intuition was correct", he continued, stifling his laughter with one last chuckle. "The Commander had mentioned a harem once in passing, and it had Rytlock and I talking about it for weeks. So, care to enlighten me?"

"That place is nothing but horrible", the healer answered swiftly, squirming in her seat while sounding disgusted. She crossed her arms across her chest while trying to unsuccessfully hide her still reddened face into her shoulder. "I chose not to think about it since he occasionally made trips there."

"Go on...", Canach asked, raising a curious planty brow.

"That abominable place is used as potential fodder for Joko to manipulate those into giving over a town or village with in return for their... hand", she continued, looking at the stucco wall behind her interrogator. "I don't like to dwell on it."

The plant-like man just hummed. The ex-Consortium mercenary had witnessed far more macabre things in his short life time. This caused hardly a noticeable dent to his already hardened perspective of the world.

"I guess it should be expected given how notorious that rotting corpse became for his lies", Canach said after a long silence between the two. "Though Iʼm still baffled you would share a bed with him."

The deep red color on the womanʼs face returned with a fury filled vengeance, but this time she opened her mouth to speak and retaliate back. Though it was swiftly interrupted when her table guest continued talking before her mouth could be allowed to run.

"Stockholm syndrome, Iʼm daring to guess if I so may?" he asked, his tone now sounding slightly more serious. Purple eyes narrowed dangerously as he had been mulling over the possibility since learning from Kito that she was possibly a person of interest to someone like Joko. Although there was still a great many of details he was missing out on, it was the only possible thing that made some sort of sense.

Julianna closed her still-opened mouth, her hand fiddling around with the familiar ring on her middle finger again. "Doylak spit... I don't know what you're referring to", she said in a stubborn-bout.

"No need to act so coy about it. Trust me, Iʼm the one person in Dragonʼs Watch that would know of it given my own personal experience of having a ballot with a harpy of a woman", Canach said, sitting languidly back in his chair again as he thought back to his imprisonment with Countess Anise. "Denying you know anything about it says otherwise though."

"Itʼs a long and complicated story", she retaliated back, still not wanting to retell all that had happened to her up until this point in time. The man in the room with her was still a complete stranger, even if he did seem to be putting on some kind of friendly bravado. But dead or alive, her allegiance was still closer to that of the deceased lich than his closest enemies.

"You certainly have the time to tell it now that he's gone, so why donʼt you?" he pressed when he didn't get the answer he immediately wanted.

"Because I donʼt have to", she shot back with equal fervor, her anxious fingers clenching into a tight fist.

There was a pause between the two before Canach laughed again, his eyes glinting with mischief again when he realized he hit a sore spot. "And here I wonder why Joko would have taken any sort of interest in you."

"And whatʼs that supposed to mean?" Julianna asked back, her unresolved emotions beginning to dangerously flare up.

"You have a fire inside of you, albeit itʼs laced with quite a bit immaturity and bullheadedness", he answered.

The healer sat forward and splayed her fingers across the surface of the table, leaning forward in her chair as she glared heated daggers at the plant like being across from her. This Sylvari had been reading her like a book so far, and she hadn't like it in the least bit. "So tell me then, how does your kind indulge in such private activities behind closed doors? Photosynthesizing or some other such manner?"

The bombardier placed a hand over his heart, mocking a face to that of feigned disappointment. "Such harsh words, Julianna Fyre. And here I thought you were going to play nice."

There was a long uncomfortable silence between the two before one of them finally broke it again.

"So then, it sounds like your job is a glorified in-home nurse? Does that sound about right?" Canach teased with a wink. He had already gone past the point of no return once he had started throwing insults around, but he was too far gone to back now.

"Very funny..." she muttered under her breath, slumping back into her chair and crossing her arms across her chest.

"Iʼm not hearing a no?" he asked with an all-knowing smile. He maneuvered himself to lean back into the chair so it was precariously balanced with his weight.

Canach certainly hadn't been expecting the woman so suddenly go on the offensive as she cast a small, but effective-enough knockdown spell directly towards him. He was thrown backwards from the chair, but he remained laying on the stone-ridden ground as he mulled over the next course of action for him. Obviously he wouldn't have retaliated back with a physical attack against her person, since he more than deserved it for his imperious and unnecessary words. He groaned before sitting up on his elbows, shooting an impassive look towards the now incredibly bothered looking healer.

She was standing from her own chair which had slide backwards some ways, a light aura of blue surrounding her palms as she awaited his next move.

He only raised a inquisitive brow towards her before continuing yet again, making no immediate move that would put her further on edge. "Your actions speak louder than words, you know?"

"So I've been told..." Julianna mumbled back as she relinquished the remaining magic in her palms and let it return back to its source. She figured that if this was how the interrogating was going to go for the rest of the process, then it was going to be a long night.

A very long night indeed.


End file.
